Travel with me to the Land of Fire and Ice: Iceland

Quick travel over the long weekend away from deadlines, meetings, and emails. Off we go to the land of fire and ice, Iceland.

I am in Europe (Germany to be exact) for a 6-month assignment, and one of the things I wanted to check on the bucket list is the northern lights. And with the short stay in Europe and less than 3 hours flight would make this dream come true.

With the last sunny day of 2017 and the long weekend in Germany, perfect for a weekend getaway, Gabi and I planned the 4-day trip to Iceland. Mostly visiting the usual tourist destination and of course to chase the Aurora.

I flew to Manchester because the flights going to Reykjavik is much cheaper compared to the price departing from Munich. I do not know either, but to save some travel cost, I did it anyway.

We arrived in Reykjavik, and the first thing we did was to get the rental car (from SADcar) and visited the famous Blue Lagoon.

To be honest, Blue Lagoon is overstated and too commercialized. Since this is one of the recommendation and Gabi wanted to go and experience, we tried when we arrived. We booked the 6 PM timeslot, and as expected this is the most frequented destination in Iceland, so there are a lot of tourists but definitely not crowded because the area is also huge to accommodate a lot of people.

Blue Lagoon for me is something like “OK, I have experienced it, and will not come back.” kind of experience. It was not something extraordinary for me. It is not my preference and I respect those who would like to go back over and over to experience it.

Then as the night gets colder and colder, we headed to our hotel in Reykjavik Natura Hotel. We booked this hotel because of its proximity to the city (although we didn’t get the chance to roam around much). When we arrived, I did not know (or my oversight) the location is at the airport, which could have been a downside because Gabi is a light sleeper and very sensitive to noise. Good thing, he liked the hotel room and the windows must be thick as it was quiet and we always have a very sound sleep during the night.

We have 3 more days to explore the country and more information about the trip will be up on my next blog.